News That Stays News

A message from the subjective future July 3, 2014

After Costa Rica beat Greece on Sunday, I decided that I probably should say something about the World Cup, and that I should probably post it now, instead of in two or three weeks.

Five-second recap: Costa Rica has made it into the quarter-finals of the World Cup (= soccer), which is in Rio de Janerio this year. I mention this for any of you who live under a rock when it comes to sports. I generally live there too, but Costa Rica making it to the quarter-finals is a big deal, so it’s even made an impression on me.

Although it’s a big deal, there hasn’t been a lot of fuss about it here. People are watching the games, or listening to them on the radio, but there isn’t much celebration or discussion after the fact. I think that’s mostly due to how few people are at the station at any given time—there are usually fewer than eight of us. And people who sign up to work two-week stints at field stations with seven other people are usually pretty quiet.

We’ve had several biology courses stay here over the last two weeks, and they’ve been the most vocally and visibly invested. Watching the Costa Rican and United States matches was nearly mandatory, one course brought a large Costa Rican flag along, and students and faculty alike have congratulated staff members on the team’s wins. (I don’t understand the logic of the last, which is one reason why I like living under that rock.) One of the students was arguing that if Costa Rica made it to the finals (unlikely), they should drop whatever they were doing and go back to San José, while others speculated on the riots that might ensue from a Costa Rica vs. US semi-finals or finals match (very unlikely at the time, and impossible now). All of which made me appreciate the advantages of sticking out the World Cup someplace with only seven other people.